drama games

As I mentioned in my previous post, where we discussed on views of my Dear and Lovely Drama Games Teacher and Encourager & Mentor of Drama Games, Aphrodite Parzakoni, “when a circle closes another one opens“! I would like for the first time to confess that the creating of this blog was initially began for the sake of a course project attending it now this semester in my Bachelor’s Degree in Communication. As I had never blogged again, I would really like to share with you my experiences on doing so before the submission of the project. This is going to be my last post or…maybe not??Continue reading →

So far, we’ve already established what drama games are and I have presented some of the exercises and performances I’ve done with my group yet in this post I’d like to speak about a conversation I had with my drama games mentor Aphrodite Parzakoni, Director, Drama Teacher & Drama Games Encourager. During that conversation, she explained how she was introduced to theatre games, what they are to her now, what drama games can do for a person and many more things which I find very interesting, thus I’d like to share them with you.

Aphrodite started her professional career with several jobs seemingly irelevant, with theatre games. From studying logistics at Saint George University and jumping from one art school to another, until she finally settled in the department of pre-school education. Then, as if by magic, she discovered drama games in a 4 day seminar where she attended a lecture by a “man with an incredible aura”, professor Lakis Kouretzis, the man who invented the Theatre/Drama Games experiential method or else “Playing through Theatre” and introduced it in Greece.

That was the time when mesmerized by Lakis Kouretzis’ lecture she decided that she definitely needed to come in touch with that person. With the encouragement of her mother she started studying theatre games however she did not uncover the magic of that first lecture, until her final year of studies.

Her ultimate commitment to drama games was established through an act she performed during the Holy days of Easter in 1995 when she revealed her passion on stage in the company of a “green ribbon”, one that binds her, body and soul to the theatre games to this very day.

As you’ve noticed in my previous post, our Theatre Games Workshop likes to be involved and experiment with somehow surreal topics, subjects and concepts! 😛 Today I want to discuss about the second theatrical performance where I played two years ago, named “W.C.: Workshop’s Cast”.

“What would you like us to treat you? Would you prefer a sweet or something to fool your hunger? Would you like us to treat you a bath or would you prefer a cold shower? You definitely made a long journey to arrive at our Armilla.”

“We would like some water. We arrived thirsty. Not exhausted, only thirsty.”

Luggage were piled in Armilla, one of the “Thin Cities” in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, consisting of a labyrinth of pipes and bathroom appliances inhabited by mysterious women; the same wetland of 30 group participants of The Drama Games Workshop “Expression & Communication” of Athens, Papagos-Cholargos.

Easter is over and as I mentioned in my previous post because of Passion human creates Art! Today I would like to talk about the first theatrical performance, “BAR – CAT – CODE” in which I took part. As I have already mentioned in my very first post, the main difference between drama games and theatre is that their purpose isn’t the theatrical performance itself, but the creative procedure that a group participant will experience and step-by-step he/she will achieve to understand, by observing and playing, his/her inner and outer world in relation with others. Drama Games Workshops adressing adults, often experiment with a variety of subjects, themes and even concepts. So, this experimentation and philosophical investigation, through dramatization, role-playing, improvisation, and pantomime, that normally takes place inside the Workshop, may lead to the desire for a theatrical performance from all group participants. And so it did! Three years ago, our Drama Games Workshop gave its first theatrical performance, “BAR – CAT- CODE”, produced by “human traces” and “cat nails“…! Continue reading →

Since in the previous post we discussed about the key benefits that a group member can acquire from a Drama Games Workshop, it is now time to actually show how he/she translates his/her creativity and imagination on stage! Today I would like to share with you a video which illustrates other group participants and me conducting a homework assignment given by our Drama Games teacher, Aphrodite Parzakoni.

The reason why I made in my previous post an informative synopsis about what theatre games are, was because I wanted to establish a common ground for everyone. Since, all of us “speak the same language”, I would like to share with you with more details what are the key benefits of drama games through my own personal experience from the past four years that I have been participating in a Theatre Games Workshop. Continue reading →

There are many opinions about what drama/theatre games are or what they should be.The different definitions of what drama games are and what they include are as many as the fields theatre games are applied to (theatre pedagogy/drama in education, training actors for the development of improvisational theatre, drama therapy). However, all definitions agree that drama games are all about…games. Thus, their primary objective is to provide group participants with recreation. The games become theatrical from the moment that a group participant, who is within a defined space and time, enjoys expressing themselves and communicates with the others through verbal and/or non-verbal language.